UK ISP V Two One (V21) has become the first such provider in this country to launch a free trial of the new dialup enhancing ONSPEED technology. It claims to enable "web users with a dial-up connection to browse the Net with Internet Explorer and use email at near broadband speeds.":

V TWO ONE IS FIRST UK ISP TO OFFER FREE TRIAL OF ONSPEED - PIONEERING SOFTWARE PROVIDING FAST WEB ACCESS FOR DIAL-UP CONNECTIONS

High speed Web and Email access without a broadband connection is now available as a free 14 day trial through V Two One, the first ISP to team up with ONSPEED, a revolutionary new software download which instantly enables Web users with a dial-up connection to browse the Net with Internet Explorer and use email at near broadband speeds (www.v21.co.uk).

As part of future partnership plans, V Two One's dial-up customers will be invited to use ONSPEED free of charge for a two-week period, after which they will be able to purchase and download the software for just £24.99 per year - a considerable saving for Web users who will benefit from 70% of the benefits of broadband for less than 10% of the cost.

With no contract, no hardware to install, no waiting for engineers and the ability to use ONSPEED within minutes regardless of location, V Two One's customers will be delighted with this brand new broadband alternative. On bandwidth tests ONSPEED consistently speeds up surfing by 300-500% and email by up to 900%. A homepage, which typically takes thirteen seconds to download on a standard 56k dialup connection, takes just four seconds with ONSPEED.

The most dramatic effect is with GPRS mobile phone connections where, with speed improvements averaging between 300 - 600%, ONSPEED can reduce the cost of downloading a batch of emails from a prohibitive £1.75 to just £0.25p.

Jamie True, Marketing Director, ONSPEED, enthused, "We are delighted to partner with V Two One as part of ONSPEED's UK launch. Their vision for the future of the Web is well matched with our philosophy and ground-breakingtechnology, and I am confident that V Two One's dial-up users will enjoy logging on to the Web with ONSPEED immediately!"

Steve Kaye, Managing Director, V Two One, said, "We are delighted to have been chosen by ONSPEED as the first UK ISP to offer free trials of an exciting technology breakthrough that will change the way millions of peoplesurf the Web. I look forward to welcoming many more customers keen to try out ONSPEED's pioneering software!"

Further information on V Two One is available at http://www.v21.co.uk, by e-mailing info@v21.co.uk or by calling +44 (0)870 442 9600.

There are many software packages that claim to enhance dialup access speeds, often through interesting combinations of compression and dynamic cache management. We’d certainly like more ‘specific’ information about how this one works; everything so far has been somewhat ‘cosmetic’.

Still, it’s probably unrealistic to compare Onspeed enhanced dialup with broadband because the technology is unlikely to speedup the downloading of pre-compressed media and files (.ZIP / streaming video etc.).

Either way we should like to hear from more people about it, especially those that have tried it; we started a discussion on the matter HERE during early January.